Ruins-ZeroX
by Midnafan725
Summary: An AU take on what could've been with the 100 year gap between X6 and Z1..
1. Reunion

**Author's Notes; Royal/Post-Apocalyptic AU. Shounen-Ai. This is set to take place during the same timeframe as post-X6 and pre-Z1..I honestly never saw myself doing something like this, although the idea intrigued me and I've seen the pre-apocalyptic scenario from many games..Guess I have to thank the Legend of Spyro Dawn of the Dragon and StarFox Assault for that..Please enjoy..This will be chaptered, but won't span as long as Royalty did..**

He slowly pushed himself up from the dirt of the large crater. The upper layer of dust and ashes slid off his blue armor, but much of the soot and ashes from the impact had stained his armor and face. Something had happened, something disastrous, and whatever it was had forced him into the earth. As he stood and scanned the area with emerald eyes, X was horrified at what he saw. The area had been leveled, no buildings stood, no signs of life, and even Maverick Hunter HQ was no more than dust. He almost wondered if he was still on Earth, but he answered his own question because he could still breathe. He wondered what happened. It looked as if a bomb had hit and wiped out everything. He was even more horrified to see human skeletons around and buried under rubble and ash. Then, he had another thought occur to him. 'Where is Zero? I hope he's not dead again too.' The thought terrified him. Everyone he knew was gone. If this included Zero, he would be truly alone. He found his way to the edge of the crater, slowly crawling his way out in search of his blond lover.

Outside, X could see that there were multiple craters, some big and some small. 'Bombs? Or asteroids?' X pondered to himself. He managed to spot a body of water in the distance and looked down at his stained armor. 'Yeah, I could definitely use a wash.' He manuevered along the edges of the craters towards the water, which happened to be the ocean. Upon reaching the ocean, he sat in the sand and let the tide come in, scrubbing the soot from his face and armor. Two pairs of eyes peered at him from a nearby crater before nodding at each other and sliding down into the crater. 'We've found him, my lord.' One of them whispered into a communicator. 'Excellent, I'm on my way.' responded a familiar voice. As X finished rinsing his face, he stared at the water unable to take in what had happened and lost in worry over whether or not Zero was alive. He was so lost in thought that he didn't hear the sound of wings flapping nor did he see the black figure coming towards him.

He landed just behind X. The mere sight of his blue-clad lover inspired hope in him once more and made his heart race. He carefully reached his demonic hands around the dazed X's chest and pulled him close. When X registered movement, he looked at the hands on his chest. He recognized those large purple demonic hands. 'Could it be..?' He asked himself and turned around, bursting into tears immediately when he saw him. "Zero! You're alive!" He cried happily, pinning Zero down into the sand as he snuggled him. Zero's red chest lens was just as warm as he remembered. "I feared you were dead, my precious X." He wrapped his wings around him as X played with his long mane. "I worried the same of you, Zero. What's happened here?" The blond wiped X's tears away and stood up, keeping X in his arms. "I'll explain along the way. Let's get you to safety." He gently set X on his feet before turning his back and moving his hair. X nodded and crawled onto Zero's back, snuggling between his wings and wrapping his arms and legs around him as Zero took off into the air. Zero held X's hands gently as he flew past the craters X had crawled through earlier. "First off, I was sealed for 101 years. What came of that was a cure to the Maverick Virus and Sigma Virus. Sigma is gone entirely now and very few Reploids have to be put down. When I was reactivated, a full-scale armageddon by a wave of large asteroids was occuring. You've seen the craters yourself, I'm sure. I managed to escape with some more surviving Reploids and we led many of the humans underground to safety, but the population was trimmed a little. We managed to save at least 75% of them, there may be more. I remembered your dream of creating a Utopia for humans and Reploids and we've decided on making it a reality. However, the asteroids destroyed almost every building on the planet. Any remaining resources are either dust or buried, which demands further investigation. Since there was no longer any sort of government, we decided on a monarchy. It seems appropriate and effective for now. I was put at the throne and sent the soldiers I escaped with to find you. That was almost 3 years ago." X was baffled. "3 years..? Asteroids.. Underground.." He said in shock, snuggling him tighter. "A monarchy? But you've always been my king...You don't need a crown on your head to prove that." Zero chuckled. "As are you. I'm not wearing one either." X smiled. He felt a little better already. "So, where exactly are we going?" "Deep underground where the humans are. The only ones who should be above ground are my troops trying to scavenge food supplies and materials we might be able to use."

Upon arriving in a desert relatively unaffected by the asteroids, Zero found and opened the underground passageway, closing the door behind him. His head and chest crystals as well as the lights on his armor made the path in front of them clear as he descended down the long stairs leading to the underground bunkers. As Zero said, there were the surviving humans and Reploids. Many of them still devastated, but some still hopeful for a brighter future. They all stopped and bowed when they saw Zero come in. X hesitated a little as he climbed off Zero's back. All these humans and Reploids had counted on him and the Maverick Hunters to protect them, but he failed. As he got on his feet, he expected to be booed and hissed at. Instead, there were cheers and chants of his name. Zero closed his eyes and smiled. "Nobody blames you for what happened. There was nothing we could do to stop asteroids." X looked at him before sighing in relief. The cheering quieted as Zero continued. "Since it is your dream that we are trying to make a reality, you should be the leader. You've always been the true leader." He began to take a few steps behind him, but X pulled him close. "No. I'm not ruling or leading alone. I want you to be with me." Zero smiled widely at him. "Ruling and leading with you? I can't object to that." X smiled more and hugged him tightly, making the humans and Reploids aww and cheer. Once the cheering stopped and everyone went to get their food and water, the blond led X to his chamber to let him relax. He saw that Zero and his troops managed to make the bunkers and chambers livable, giving them the comforts of home for the most part. X deactivated and removed his armor before lying down on the bed. Zero watched him in concern and stopped in front of the bed. "I know how shocked you are from all this. I was too at first." The brunette smiled as he looked up at him. "You and all the survivors are safe. That's the best I can ask for." He pet the bed, gesturing for Zero to lay down next to him. "Come here, my king." Zero smirked and did as he was told, wrapping his wing around X. "We'll draw the blueprints and search for resources tomorrow." X nodded, snuggling him tightly, rubbing against his warm chest lens. Zero lapped X's neck, sending a tingling feeling through X's body that X had long missed. He placed a few new love bites around X's neck before they eventually fell asleep for the night.


	2. Scavenging

**Author's Notes; Royal/Post-Apocalyptic AU. Shounen-Ai. Very fluffy. To make up for the big fucking drop off in pairing pictures lately, I've said fuck it, I'm throwing in the fucking fluff not just because of the drop off, but also because things got stressful..and thanks to a chaotic week, I'm personally a little disoriented..I also have a promo picture in mind for this..Aye, I make my own promo pictures for my own writings, if you want something done right, do it yourself..Anyways, please enjoy..This work shouldn't go further than 3 chapters..**

The next morning when he woke, Zero checked the food supplies to ensure that there was enough to go around. He insisted X stay in bed and brainstorm a design for Neo Arcadia. He brought breakfast for the two of them to their chamber, sitting beside X carefully and passing him his food. Toast and eggs for both of them. X couldn't complain much, he hadn't eaten for 3 whole years. Zero wasn't terribly hungry so he had minimal complaints as well. He folded his wings slowly as he started on his eggs and passed X some juice. X smiled and took a sip before setting the glass on the nightstand beside him. He edged closer to Zero and slowly rolled beside him, swiping Zero's fork. The blond looked at him, slightly confused as X handed him his fork. The brunette picked up some of the eggs on Zero's plate and lifted them up towards the blond's mouth. Zero finally understood what X was doing. X was the only one who knew that the blond liked being babied a little. He found it very cute and sweet of him, it would often turn his face red and make his heart flutter. Zero blushed brightly and his chest lens gave a slight glow as he ate the egg and returned the favor for X. The brunette giggled and purred as he took his bite before rubbing against Zero's hips.

When they finished feeding each other, X crawled into Zero's lap, almost as if Zero was X's throne. The blond didn't mind, though, he encased X in his wings and handed X the blueprint paper and pencil. Reclining against Zero's chest a little, it didn't take long for X to get started. The blond held X's sides gently as he watched his lover. He could swear that he saw bits and pieces of Abel City in some of X's designs. X let him look over the blueprints, snuggling him more. Zero smiled and kissed X's head before looking the blueprints over. "We'll need to do a full sweep of the planet to get enough materials for this." X looked up at him. "By ourselves?" Zero shook his head. "Not a chance." He whistled loudly, signaling for Abel's remaining troops. There had to be at least 40 of them, they piled into the room and stopped in front of the two lovers, saluting. "Sir!" Zero nodded at them. "At ease. We now have a blueprint of what Neo Arcadia will look like. However, it will obviously take alot of material and time to get the job done, which means a full sweep of the planet is needed. Split into groups of 3." The soldiers nodded, doing as they were told. The 3 groups had 13 soldiers each, 3 remained off to the side. Zero lifted his left hand off X's side and pointed at the groups individually. "North, West, South...The three of you left, get your chasers. You'll be coming with me and X to the East." The soldiers nodded, leaving the room to get ready. The two watched them leave before Zero looked down at X. "Your armor is wrecked, it will take alot of time to repair it. I kept your clothes in that second closet in the back in the hope that you were still alive." He pointed to the closet at the far side of the room. X set the blueprints down before turning around and hugging him. "You're just the best." He kissed Zero's lips, letting the blond kiss him back before going to the closet and changing his clothes.

Since the asteroids had rained down, the sky had very little blue. It was a dark crimson mostly, and due to some remaining bodies of water, blue patches could be seen, making a little purple at the edges where they mixed with the red. These blue patches were fewer at night in absence of the sun. Zero's soldiers set out in their assigned directions. Zero waited for his three remaining soldiers to get their chasers and attached trailers on them to keep the materials they might scavenge. X hadn't taken notice of the sky since he had woken from his brief dirt nap. Now that he was looking as he kept tight on Zero's back, he found it saddening and interesting at the same time. He noticed that the stars were more visible too. Zero looked up at the stars too as he took flight towards the east. "Strange looking, isn't it?" X nodded gently. "Yeah, but kind of intriguing in a way. Its kind of cool to see the stars during the day though." The blond grinned, nodding back. "I have to agree there. Its quite an interesting sight." He could hear the chasers following behind them and held X's hands close to his chest lens. "Where do you want Neo Arcadia built?" X lowered his head a little. "The old site of Abel City." Zero nodded slightly. "Then we'll store the materials close to that area."

Once they neared a large crater, everyone set to work gathering any materials that looked usable. The three soldiers searched around outside the crater while Zero flew inside, X stayed on his back acting as an extra pair of eyes as Zero hovered slowly around. Sometimes, Zero had to touchdown to pull something out, other times he merely had to flap his wings faster to blow the dirt and dust off semi-visible objects. When the sky began to darken to a burgundy hue and the sun began to set, the materials gathered by the soldiers were piled into the trailers hooked to the chasers. Zero flew back to the underground shelter to check on the survivors and make sure they had plenty to eat and drink. Some of the humans and Reploids asked favors of him and X, but neither minded. Once all the errands were settled, the two kings returned to the excavation site. The three soldiers had set up a small camp in their absence, saluting them as Zero landed. Zero and X saluted back before X crawled off. The blond watched X get comfortable on the matt before lying next to him, encasing X in his wings once more. "We've had a good start and found alot to use, but it will take quite a while. Even longer with the actual construction." X smiled and pulled him closer. "I don't care how long it takes, as long as I'm with you." Zero smiled back. "I'm yours forever, X. And you're mine forever, you realize that right?" The brunette blushed brightly, looking at him. "When was that established? Hmm, given our past, you're right." The blond smirked. He knew X was just playing. "You are mine for eternity, end of story." X nodded, smiling happily as he snuggled Zero before the both of them closed their eyes. "Yes, your majesty."


	3. The New Kingdom

**Author's Notes; Post-Apocalyptic AU. Shounen-Ai. Fluffy. This chapter was badly delayed due to artwork, college, and the fact that my mum has had neck surgery and can't do shite by herself for a while. Its also the final chapter to this fic and is pretty brief. Hope you enjoy it, its back to the Abyss known as Writer's Block for me..By the way, Cyber Elf X armor towards the end..**

Days stretched into weeks and weeks into months. Zero, X, and the remainder of Abel's army scouted the entire Earth for reusable material. Each group found plenty to work with, but it took a great deal of time to excavate the materials, sometimes a few days. After the materials were dug out, a pile was started at the site, which was for when Zero's group would come around to collect them and bring them to the former site of Abel city.

Zero's group came around after 2 months. He carried X around on his back, he was getting used to it after all the pulling he'd done during some of the excavations. He felt very content about it though, he had missed X's warmth for 3 long years, so to him it felt wonderful. X snuggled Zero as they landed at the first pile of materials. "Wow, this looks really promising." The blond nodded with a grin as the chasers pulled up. "Its a little too early to celebrate. We don't know if they had the same kind of luck elsewhere." He said as he began helping the group load the materials into the chaser trailers. The trailers were long and wide so they could carry alot of materials and since there were three for three chasers, they had to unload at Abel city's former location every three trips. Zero would follow them to help them unload so it was tedious. "Zero, was there any glass in that pile?" X asked. "I saw some. Why?" The blond asked back. "There isn't much air in the atmosphere anymore. We need a dome of some sort so the humans can breathe." Zero nodded. "Well, if we can't find much more, we'll make some." X smiled, hugging him tightly.

When all the piles of materials were amassed at Abel's former site, Zero checked through the materials thoroughly. "There's not much glass still and most of it is broken so we can't use it." X said a little discouraged. Zero smirked. "What did I tell you earlier?" He asked as he assembled the troops. The blond turned his head, looking over his left shoulder at him. "That we would make some." Zero nodded before looking at the troops again. "Listen up, starting tomorrow, the three groups that went North, South, and West will begin construction of Neo Arcadia. My group will create the glass for the air-dome. We will head back and get the construction tools and machines in the shed, not too far from the desert base." The troops nodded, starting back to the desert base as did Zero and X.

Once they were finished moving the machinery to the site, they all returned to the base for the night. X and Zero checked on the humans and Reploids before adjourning to Zero's room. Zero had another look at X's armor. It was chipped and damaged badly, he wasn't so sure he could repair it now. "Can you fix it, Z?" X asked. "I underestimated the amount of damage and weathering it took during the 3 years that you were buried alive. However, if you'll let me, I may be able to work it into something better than your old armor." He responded, looking up at X. The brunette nodded, a little discouraged again, but grinned regardless. "Do whatever you need to, my king." The blond blushed brightly, nodding back as he crossed his legs and got started as soon as he found his tools.

X wanted to watch Zero, but his human need for sleep got the better of him. Zero patched up the busted helmet and gave it a lighter blue hue and changed the programming that dictated the design of the armor once the helmet's head crystal activated. He knew he should be sleeping too, but it was all for X so he couldn't put it down. He wanted something a little royal-esqe for X and when the sun was just beginning to rise, he completed his work, getting up and gently setting the new helmet on X's head and gently pushing the head crystal. X woke to a whirring sound. The armor had activated and a rainbow data halo formed above his head, accompanied by a blue robe and shoes with black underneath. Zero helped X up and walked him to the mirror. He couldn't help but blush, he thought X was cuter in this new armor or robe than his older armor. "What do you think, X?" The brunette had a limited amount of words as he looked at himself in the mirror. "Its very cool, Zero, I really like this." The blond smiled. "Glad to hear it." He looked into the mirror at both of them. "We're like angel and devil now." X chuckled, hugging him tightly, noticing his own wings in the mirror. "You're too sweet to be a devil."

That morning, Zero assembled the troops. They almost didn't recognize X. Zero's group reported that they had convienently found a glass making factory that was still standing. "Good work. The other three groups will start construction." He handed them X's Neo Arcadian blueprints. The troops saluted before setting off for the construction sight. X climbed onto Zero's back as Zero followed his group to the old glass factory.

Several months passed. Neo Arcadia was built right into the crater where Abel once stood. The soldiers made good time regardless of rough weather patterns like sandstorms, thunderstorms, and twisters. Neo Arcadia held firm through all of it. All that remained was the glass air-dome. Zero outfitted the troops in his group with jetpacks so they could all help with installing the dome. It was far too massive to build inside so it was done outside. The dome was completed a few days after Neo Arcadia itself. Zero got his group and X to hoist the dome up and carried it to Neo Arcadia, carefully setting it in place over the city. Everyone was soon busy welding the dome on.

While the troops drove trucks back to the desert base to pick up the humans and other Reploids, X and Zero landed and walked through Neo Arcadia's main gates together, looking around. The buildings and houses were built very sturdy and there were spots isolated for yards and gardens off the sides of the road. In the center stood a large palace that was not part of X's blueprints. "Wow..." X said as he and Zero stopped at a distance from it. "This wasn't part of your blueprints, but what do you think?" Zero asked. X shook his head at a loss of words. "Its too amazing..." Zero smiled. "Welcome to your new kingdom." "Our new kingdom." X corrected.


End file.
